The Fight For Love (Joshaya)

Chapter 59

  Serve others. Serve others. That's how she loves the God of the universe.

  She thinks about the time she sat at the dumpster with Nathan and let him pour out everything he was going through on her. That was serving someone. So that's the kind of thing she needs to do more of. Listen to people when they need an ear. Provide a shoulder when they need to lean on someone. Never overlook what someone may be going through. Her memory flashes back  to when Nathan talked to her in the library but she told him to go away. She doesn't want to act like that anymore; she wants to be the person that anyone can feel comfortable around. Tomorrow when she goes to school, she is going to hang around her best friend Riley and be a little more observant of the world around her.

  Settled on her new plan for life, she moves to wrap her arms around Josh's torso in his bed. As much as she wants to go further with him before he falls completely asleep, she restrains the want and quietly sings something she heard on the Christian radio station.

~~~~

  As Riley and Maya walk down the school hallway towards their next class, Maya notices Nathan coming around the corner and is about to shout his name when she sees a group of guys approaching around him. They begin to corner him towards the row of lockers, and he puts his hands up in surrender. However, they don't seem to care about his surrendering and one of the guys grabs him by the shirt and pushes him against the lockers.

  Maya hands her books to Riley without even looking at her friend and stomps over to where the group of jerk guys are. When she reaches them, she taps on one of their shoulders, causing him to turn around and the one guy holding Nathan to let go.

  She asks, "What do you guys think you're doing?"

  "Maya, we were just about to tear this kid apart, but you can have first dibs at him."

  She can't believe she used to be a part of the crowd that went around school tearing innocent students apart just for the pleasure in doing so. Now that she's standing in front of them defending one of her friends, she is very glad that she can't remember any of their names.

  Another one of the guys speaks up, "Maya, whatever you end up doing, we can film it and send it to every student here. That way everyone will know we're not to be messed with."

  Releasing a sigh, Maya glances over at Nathan but he seems like he can't even look her in the eyes. She doesn't blame him; if she found out one of her friends was part of the jerk group, she wouldn't wanna look at her either.

  The guy that spoke to her first speaks again, "So, what's the plan, Maya?"

  She can't believe that she's going to stand up to these guys. Even though they're jerks to everyone else, they were her family before Josh came into the picture. She doesn't want to be mean to them in order to spare only one person's dignity. 

  When she begins to wave a hand for them to do what they please to him and turn back towards Riley, something in her spirit stops her from doing so. Something tells her to help out her friend because it's what Nathan would do for her. Something tells her that she can help him out without tearing down her old family. She has no idea what she's doing, but she pushes past the guys and takes Nathan's hand in hers, whispering to him, "I'm here." Tears start streaming down her cheeks as she looks up at only him.

  Nathan squeezes tight to Maya's hand and stares straight down at their enfolded hands. He whispers, "So, now what?"

  All she manages to do is shake her head while still crying. "I don't know."

  The last guy to speak pushes past the other guys and grabs Maya by the shoulder, causing her to spin around and break contact from Nathan's hand. He almost yells at her, "What do you think you're doing? You can't just become one of the good guys now. We're family. Family sticks together."

  "But family doesn't tear other people down to lift themselves up. They want to see other people succeed as well."

  Stunned, the guy only manages to stare directly through Maya.

  Maya takes this opportunity, grabbing Nathan's hand and running past the guys towards Riley who still stands in the same spot holding Maya's books. When the two of them reach her, Maya lets go of Nathan's hand and wipes the tears from her eyes. She says, "Guys, I did it. I stood up to my old family without being mean to them. I'm making progress."

  Riley rubs Maya's arm, "Yes, peaches, you're doing so great. I'm so incredibly proud of you. I just wish I could've been with you the entire journey."

  Reaching for Riley's hand and squeezing it, Maya says, "Hey, it's okay. We all go through rough times. The important thing is that we're together now and we have another person to help us as well." She nods towards Nathan with a smile.

  "Yeah, we've met a couple times and I'd say you picked a good person as our third best friend."

  "I think so, too." She grins directly at Nathan and he grins back.

~~~~

  "That's awesome, Maya!" Josh exclaims as he's typing on his laptop at his desk.

  Getting up from the bed, Maya heads towards the door and starts to turn it when it turns from the other side and pushes Maya towards the entry to the bathroom. She regains her balance as she stares at his roommate that just entered the room.

  He says, "Hey, Maya!" He seems to have noticed that she had become off balanced. "Are you okay? Sorry if I pushed the door on you."

  Shaking her head, she says, "Nah, it's all good. I was just about to head out; I'm spending the night at my friend Riley's tonight. I just wanted to tell Josh about something first."

  "Wait. So you're saying I get him all to myself tonight?"

  "Yeah..."

  "Sweet! Thanks, Maya!"

  "You're welcome?" She almost walks out of the room but stops herself first. "Should I be worried what you're up to with him?"

  "Nah, it's all good." He winks.

  Not convinced by his response but not wanting to question the situation too much longer, Maya heads out of the room and focuses on how much catching up she'll get to do with her best friend tonight.